The Valiants pick up another crucial three points after four first-half goals against Newcastle Town boosted their title hopes.
The opening nine minutes, saw Macy Isherwood’s threaded through ball to Lucy Moss down the right flank almost give the visitors the lead, but her attempted chip over the keeper hit the side netting.
Two minutes later, Sian McHugh’s inch-perfect ball over to Moss again down the right flank put her in the perfect position to cross the ball into the middle where Elissa Dockerty was waiting to stab the ball home and give Vale the lead.
Captain McHugh then turned into goal scorer, in the 15th minute, as Sophie Garratt’s dangerous in swinging corner from the left connected with her midfield partner within the six-yard box to head home for Vale’s second.
After 19 minutes played, Moss was again in behind the right flank as her cross into the box ghosted along the face of the goal as Isherwood recycled the ball to set up McHugh on the edge of the area who blasted wide of the post.
In the 22nd minute, Dockerty picked the ball up and poked the ball out wide to Moss, her cross-come shot soared over the top of the keeper and added another to the Valiants' goal tally.
Newcastle threatened the Vale goal, just before the half-hour mark, when their throw-in was latched onto the home team’s striker going through on goal in the box but a weak effort on target was easily collected by Connie Watts.
A threatening corner from Mollie Prime, in the 31st minute, almost produced Vale’s fourth, but Naomi Sale-Hancock’s touch from close range bounced into the ground and off the crossbar.
Four minutes later, when Prime’s free kick pinballed in the Newcastle box before it fell to Olivia Grocott who blasted goalward, which the keeper blocked, but fell to Sale-Hancock to convert from close range.
The second half saw the Valiants pressing for a fifth, and it nearly came when Dockerty claimed the ball on the edge of the penalty area and fired low to the left of the goal, but the ball cannoned off the post and Newcastle cleared the ball away.
Before the hour mark, good build-up play from the back put Prime in a good position to cross from the left flank, which reached Grocott, but she put her shot over the bar.
Three minutes later, Grocott benefitted from a mix-up at the back between keeper and defender for Newcastle and from a tight angle she tried to squeeze the ball into the far left of the goal but dragged her shot just wide.
Watts managed to stop a rare Newcastle opportunity, in the 66th minute, when she easily collected a high looping free kick into the Vale box.
Two minutes before the end, Prime looked to trouble the keeper from a free kick 35 yards out, that seemed to be dipping in but just went over the bar.
An action-packed first-half performance was enough for the Valiants to win another match by four goals, strengthening their grip on second place in the league.
Port Vale | Connie Watts, Daisy Anderson-Wright, Naomi Sale-Hancock, Keeley Riley, Sian McHugh, Mollie Prime, Sophie Garratt, Elissa Dockerty (67’ Macy Isherwood), Macy Isherwood (33’ Olivia Grocott), Lucy Moss (67’ Erin Moreton-Powell), Erin Moreton-Powell (33’ Tara Harrison).
